Tagged: japanese war effort

…are just some of the novelty ways which bands have decided to release their new records over the last couple of months. I’m not sure if anyone has told their label bosses that

there’s a dodgy economic climate but fair play to them for injecting some fun into the whole event of releasing a record.

First up we have the now famed 7″ Chocolate Vinyl release from FOUND. There were only 50 copies of this up for grabs so I suspect not many of our readers own one but with the medium of youtube, you can watch Edinburgh band Eagleowl listen to and then eat the record here. I suspect the remaining 49 have gone the same way and been melted down for hot chocolate or something.

Keeping the theme with the edibles is the rather swish looking clear vinyl package from Japanese War Effort. The EP, Surrender to Summer which is out on Edinburgh’s Song, By Toad Records comes equipped with a bag of those lovely sweets that you see on the front cover. You can pick up a copy of the record here, it’s limited to 250 i think.

Rounding up this post on novelty releases is Glasgow’s Mitchell Museum who recently released their new single on a 16-note keyboard. The download code for said single is hidden inside the keyboard so you can either systematically dismantle the keyboard to preserve it or if you feel like smashing the living daylights out of it, get yourself a mallet from the shed, both methods are recommended on the Mitchell Museum website. There’s still a couple of them left here for a fiver.

We’ve had a couple of good nights with Yusuf at Elba this year, including an appearance at our birthday gig in October, and felt it was only right to include him in our Elba Annual for 2010. He released his debut album ‘Turn on The Long Wire‘ on Song, By Toad Records a couple of weeks ago and it’s an absolute gem. He’s also appearing live in session with Vic Galloway on the old wireless tonight (15th December).

I mentioned the other day that Matthew from Loch Awe was the fastest respondent in music. We’ll stick Yusuf at the other end of that scale, but it’s worth the wait!

Album Of The Year –‘Dark Night Of The Soul’ – Dangermouse and Sparklehorse. I had already listened to this loads before its official release. There’s some stunning songs on here, ‘star eyes’ stands out for me. Also, ‘Have One On Me’ – Joanna Newsom

Best Gig (Band) –I supported Lou Barlow at Stereo in Febuary and the crowd was excellent. Also Lou gave me permission to dive into his Budvars and camembert.

Best Gig (Other) –The Versus night at the Voodoo room, Edinburgh with Japanese War Effort, Dupec & Miaoux Miaoux. what happens here is the bands cover each others songs and collobarate at different points. along with some other guest slots, what you get is a night of continuous music with almost each song having a different line-up. with the acts being excellent, this was a really fresh approach to putting on a gig and made it very enjoyable.

Meursault’s Glasgow launch was superb. i seen then a couple of years ago at the flying duck with only a few people in the crowd, to see the Captains Rest packed out was very pleasing, and for me it was almost like a celebratory atmosphere. it was my first exposure to their full line-up including cello and the sound was huge.

Favourite New Bands –The Japanese War Effort. Great songs and prolific. I suggest you get the EP and mini album he has made available free to dowload from his Bandcamp Page here http://thejapanesewareffort.bandcamp.com/

I was also on the bill with Inspector Tapehead last week who played a great set.

Musical Memories of 2010 –The entrance music of the snooker players at the world masters. Mark King had ‘You Can Do It By (Put Your Back Into It)’ by Ice Cube. Marcu Fu had ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas and Jimmy White had a Dire Straits song of some description. Biggest disappointment was Ronnie O’Sullivan walking on to a tune by The Hours. Ronnie we know you’re a genius but sort it out.

Hopes/Plans for 2011 –To get my new album ready pronto. Other than that; get back into the dating game and ease off on the dairy.

You can visit Yusuf here on his myspace page and get your hands on a copy of his album through Song, By Toad here.